And Avengers: Infinity War really shows that they know what they're doing.
For the record THERE WILL BE SPOILERS IN THIS REVIEW. They won't be until later, and I'll try not to include too many, but I want to get my thoughts down about the end of the movie, and that, my friends, requires some degree of spoilers.
You have been warned.
Given that this movie's cast list is extensive to say the least (there are 24 characters on the poster for goodness sake... at least I think it's 24, I lost count several times), they did handle that many characters in probably the best way possible, splitting characters off into small groups, which leads to some really great pairings... Stark and Strange, Thor and Rocket... anybody who spends any screentime with Starlord. There were a few that I would definitely like to see together more... most notably Black Widow and Okoye, but hopefully that will happen in the second movie.
And they have also finally put together an adversary for the Avengers who has more than a single character trait (with the exception of Loki, but then he hasn't really been a formidable threat since the first Avengers movie)... Thanos is... complex. Don't get me wrong, he's an insane creature with a scrotum for a chin, but he's complicated. And Josh Brolin actually brings a lot to the character.
I will say that there are more than a few moments where I was already way ahead of the story... I'm not sure if that's a shared experience and intentional by the film makers, but especially towards the end there were a couple of times where I already knew what was about to happen (specifically with the soul and mind stones).
Thinking about it, it feels like the real keystones of this movie (pun entirely at your discretion) were Thor, the Guardians of the Galaxy and Dr Strange. Yes, Iron Man was in there too, but a lot of the time he felt secondary to Strange and Spiderman and eventually the Guardians. Also, I was basically over Tony about three movies ago (don't get me wrong, RDJ does a great job, I'm just essentially over the character himself).
And Captain America doesn't necessarily take a back seat, there's just not a whole heap for him to do. Thinking about the way the movie ended though, I think that essentially sidelining the entire original Avengers team in various ways was somewhat intentional, because they're clearly going to have to kick butt and take names in the sequel.
The movie also looks amazing (unsurprisingly)... from New York, to Wakanda, to maybe half a dozen alien planets... it looks great. Yes, there were times when I looked at the screen and thought "well, everything I'm looking at right now was created in a computer somewhere". None of it was bad, though... even though Thanos's whole gang were at least augmented in the computer.
Now, about that ending...
Remember, spoilers.
I'm not going to lie... I teared up a little bit twice during the ending and once before... the before part was Groot helping Thor with his new weapon, the end parts were Tom Holland's performance of his final lines as well as the scene between Groot and Rocket.
But does anyone ACTUALLY believe all of those people are gone for good. I mean, Black Panther... after the metric fuckton of money that movie just made, he's definitely coming back... and Spiderman has a solo movie coming out just after the Avengers sequel, so it all just lacked teeth.
Doubly so when you realise that of the 24 characters (and it is 24, I recounted) on the poster, the half that remain alive at the end of the movie are either side characters, the villain or the six original characters from the first Avengers movie.
Plus, keeping in mind Dr Strange's comment about how many possibly outcomes there are where the Avengers win basically brings us to a "Morpheus Matrix moment".
Yes, there is at least one character who probably won't be coming back... but even that I'm not sure about, because comic books and the things they inspire are weird that way.
But it was good... it was a great ride, they finally fixed the villain problem that has been part of almost every Marvel movie, and it was a hell of a cliffhanger to go out on.
yani's rating: 4 infinity stones out of 5
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